Strategy

Aston, Penn.-- Actions Services Group, a national lighting maintenance, sign maintenance and electrical services company, will provide scheduled lighting maintenance for Hancock Fabrics, a specialty retailer of crafts and fabrics. The lighting maintenance program will include quarterly inspections and service to all 266 Hancock Fabrics store locations across 37 states and will cover interior store lighting and exterior canopy lighting maintenance.

A decade after founding Triad Retail Media, Greg Murtagh is stepping down as CEO of the digital retail media company to pursue new opportunities.

Stepping up to the CEO role is current president and COO Roger Berdusco who worked closely with Murtagh since the innovative agency was founded in 2004. Murtagh will remain on the company’s board of directors.

Plano, Texas -- Pretax restructuring charges related to corporate reorganization and store closures, as well as pretax impairment charges, helped reduce net earnings at Rent-A-Center Inc. 7% to $25.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2014 from $27.2 million in the third quarter of the prior year. Revenues grew 2% to $769.5 million from $754.8 million, and same-store sales rose 1.9%.

 

Los Angeles --Great American Group has been selected as a stalking horse bidder in the potential liquidation of Alco Stores, which operates 198 general merchandise discount stores in 23 states. Great American is a leading provider of asset disposition and auction solutions, advisory and valuation services, capital investment, and real estate advisory services.

L'Oréal USA has announced plans to acquire multi-cultural beauty brand Carol's Daughter.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Created by Lisa Price in 1993, Carol's Daughter offers a range of products that are available at specialty beauty stores, mass retailers, on HSN, through e-commerce and at Carol's Daughter branded stores in New York City. For the 12 months ended Sept. 30, Carol's Daughter had net sales of $27 million.

By Chris Donnelly, managing director for retail, Accenture Strategy   What do supermarkets have to gain from a price war? Judging from the battles that have been raging around the world of late, the answer is--nothing. Experience shows that they are truly a “race to the bottom”--aside from the consumer, the only possible winner is the lowest cost provider. Food retailers, however, have options for how to avoid getting drawn into a costly price war.   

Louisville, Ky. -- GBT Realty Corp., a national real estate development company based in Brentwood, Tenn., is expanding tenant lineups at two Louisville-based regional shopping centers totaling nearly 500,000-sq.-ft. to over 90% leased. Only a combined 23,500-sq.-ft. of retail space remains at Jefferson Commons and at Middletown Commons with the first tenants scheduled to be open in November. Construction is currently underway.  

Fashion footwear brand Steve Madden cited a curious lack of significant fashion trends when it lowered its full year financial outlook after reporting a third quarter sales decline.

The company, which is known to be a trend-setting in the footwear world, said sales for the period ended Sept. 30 declined 0.7% to $392 million and indicated full year sales were likely to increase 1% to 2%.